Once upon a time, the only thing you could buy on Cotton Bureau was a t-shirt. Like literally a t-shirt. One t-shirt. If you were the person selling this t-shirt, you would grab the link and send it to your people. You would say something like, “Here is my t-shirt! It’s available in any color you want, as long as you like black. Please buy it now, because it will be available for just two weeks.” Or whatever. Nobody would show up on your profile page only to be immediately overwhelmed by the sheer number of always available products you had for sale.

It was a nice system, people liked it. But for reasons good and proper, our little Cotton Bureau pre-order machine has mutated, growing sideways, outwards, and in more than a few odd, unpredictable directions: sweatshirts here, stickers, hats, totes, and posters there, phone cases everywhere. Thus, we present searching, sorting, and filtering for stores. Just like the home page, anyone browsing your catalog can now (we hope) find exactly what they want.

Suppose we spin the wheel of mystery. The wheel lands on Adam Selby’s store. A quick tour shows the new sort options up top: newest, most popular now, and random. Down the left hand column (or just below the sorting if you are on mobile) are filters for category (apparel or phone cases) and availability (on demand or pre-order). Jumping into a category reveals additional filters like color, material, and cut. Search has also been added. Perhaps your outie likes Severance.

While we’re talking store improvements, it’s worth noting a few small bug fixes / philosophical changes. Out of stock or otherwise unavailable items are now listed last, and stores with more than 50 products are paginated to making loading snappier.

Don’t forget, people can also sign up to be notified when you release a new product. It’s in that little box on the left or in the expanded profile on mobile.

Premium Store Improvements

Standard Cotton Bureau stores weren’t the only ones to receive an upgrade, however. In addition to the features mentioned already, premium accounts like Letterboxd are now able to choose one (or more) products to feature. Behind the scenes, premium and standard accounts have been brought closer together in the code, which allows us to develop new features for both more efficiently. Premium accounts gained the new product subscription box this round, but free accounts may see features begin to trickle down.

Phone Cases are Here

Everybody has been talking about our new phone cases, saying things like “these are great” and “how did you do this???” We like to let our work speak for itself, but… we agree. These are great. The print color, quality, and vibrancy is 🤌. If you haven’t added a phone case (or 10) yet, what are you waiting for? Existing products can be migrated in two minutes or less, and we’re standing by to help if you have any questions. Heck, we’ll convert them for you ourselves if you want, just say the word.

Bits ’n Bobs

If you haven’t stopped by the home page in the last few weeks, you’ve missed out on a few of my lowkey favorite changes. The featured product carousel is new and improved with more accent colors, and the default product list is a randomized collection of our favorite designs over the years. It’s a tough list to crack, but we’re adding more every week. Show us what you’ve got. We want to feature the very best.

What’s Next?

Such a lovely question. The answer is… well, you’re going to have to wait and see. Holidays are approaching muy rapido. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be leaning into that with our next update. See you in four weeks 😉.

Not gonna lie, we are beyond excited to announce that support for phone cases is now officially available to all sellers. These cases are absolutely phenomenal. From the tough cases with built-in magnets for charging to the slim and clear cases, we think there’s something for everyone. We can’t wait to see your designs on the site, and we’re even more pumped to see them in the real world. If that’s the only reason you are reading this email, go nuts.

And now for some updates. The last month has been busy as we continued to test both the website and our manufacturing integration. We’ve made a few improvements that merit a quick mention.

New Size and Placement Options

Early returns suggest the most popular style is full coverage. We agree, that’s a great choice. Because the print wraps the entire way around the cases (except clear), designs that extend beyond the back plate look fantastic. Until recently, that meant when you uploaded your design file, the artwork was scaled to cover the case (including the sides, bottoms, and tops that you can’t see). We’re keeping that option around, but we are also adding a new option that keeps your artwork at the exact scale you chose when you uploaded. This — combined with the ability to keep transparency instead of auto-trimming — gives you full control over the size and placement of your artwork.

We’re also making a slight change to the XS, S, M, and L sizes. Each one is getting bumped up slightly as well as being tweaked from a static size specified in inches to a size relative to each phone case (just like Max). All existing products have been converted to match the closest new size, but please check your catalog to make sure everything looks correct.

Product Migration

Have an existing t-shirt that you think would make a lovely phone case? Hop in to your accountand click the button to start a brand new product using the same artwork and meta information. The whole process takes 60 seconds, couldn’t be easier.

3 > 1

If you created a product in the last month, you probably noticed the single background color limit. You can now choose up to three different color options for your design. For example, red, white, and blue 🇺🇸. Or red, yellow, and green 🚥. Or (R)ed 🔴, (G)reen 🟢, and (B)lue 🔵 . Or cherry 🍒, peach 🍑, and blueberry 🫐. Really, you get the point.

Sample Orders

Sneaking in lowkey while we were adding phone case support is one of our most requested features, the ability to preview a product (on demand shirt or phone case) before it is live and/or order a sample. When you create a new product, you now have the option to keep it hidden until you are ready to publish it. You can also navigate to that product as long as you are logged in and place an order.

Updated Home Page

With phone cases joining shirts as a first class product category for us, we thought it was time to expand the featured home page products gallery. You will now see phone cases side-by-side with t-shirts and sweatshirts. The king is dead, long live the king.

And the one* question we know is on everyone’s mind…

When will iPhone 14 cases be ready? Will I need to do anything?

Last question first, no, you will not need to do anything. All phone case products will be updated automatically to include support for the latest generation. (For the record, older generations of phone cases will also be culled as they approach end of life. We’ll sound the klaxon before that happens, however.)

As everyone no doubt knows, Apple is hosting an event Wednesday, September 7. New phones typically start shipping the following week. We’ll all know more on Wednesday, but our expectation is that next generation phone cases will be added to the site within a few days of iPhones 14 hitting stores and homes. Let’s say roughly Sept 21 (🎶) as a preliminary estimate.

Wow, thank you all so much. We were overwhelmed by the response to last month’s email teasing a new! and exciting! product from Cotton Bureau. As many of you now know, Product X is phone cases. Specifically, a healthy range of beautiful yet durable cases available for iPhones 12 and 13 as well as Galaxy S22. If you are late to the party but still want to help test before the green flag, email us. We’ll do our best to squeeze you in. (If you are still waiting, hang in there! We’re working through the backlog of requests as quickly as we can.)

Let’s cover a few of the most frequently asked questions.

Can I convert an existing t-shirt design into a phone case?

Soon! We’re actively working on the ability to grab the artwork, title, and description from existing products to make porting designs to phone cases easier. That said, we opened up testing before this feature was ready for a specific reason: not every t-shirt design makes sense as a phone case! Still, we know, easier is better, so keep your eyes peeled. One of these days we’ll be slipping it in while you’re not looking.

Why only one background color option?

One of our guiding principles around the ol’ Cotton Bureau HQ is that more isn’t always better. Restriction of choice can be a good thing. However! In this case, we believe at least a little more would go a long way. We’ll be changing the limit posthaste from one color to… more than one color.

Tell me more about these cases.

Not a question! We will answer anyway. There are two case profiles, tough and slim. There are two case finishes, matte and glossy. There are two printing types, in-surface and UV. There are two supported brands, Apple and Samsung. Tough cases are what they sound like. Rugged (but smooth), made of an exterior polycarbonate shell and an interior TPU liner. The tough case (with MagSafe) is my daily driver.

If you’re more into the slim feel, the main difference is the lack of interior liner which results in less bulk (and protection). You get the same printing process on the outside and choice of finishes. There is also a MagSafe variant of the tough case and a clear variant of the slim case. All case styles and phone generations are included automatically when you create a product unless you explicitly exclude them.

Can the MagSafe hold my phone up in the car?

Nope. MagSafe in this context just means you can still use your charging equipment. These aren’t industrial-strength magnets.

What kind of witchcraft is this clear case?

Clear cases come with two pretty big caveats. First, the case material is not the same polycarbonate as the slim and tough cases. It’s more of a rubbery, soft material. It’s not bad, but it might not be to everyone’s taste. Second, the clear cases receive a UV (not in-surface) print. It’s a minor but noticeable difference in quality. That said, it’s the only way to see the color of the phone through the case, so it’s a tradeoff we’re willing to make.

What’s the difference between matte and glossy finish?

The glossy finish is slightly grippier and richer in color than the matte finish. As much as we love a good matte finish, we’ve found that glossy is the way to go with this particular product which is why we chose it as the default. There are certainly occasions that matte is the right move, but give the glossy a try, you might be surprised.

What’s next (for phone cases)?

General release is imminent. We have a short list of features to ship and bugs to squash, then we’re off to the races. We’ll be adding iPhone 14 as close to day one as possible, followed by Galaxy S23 in the spring. Beyond that, we’re expecting a quiet year as we monitor interest and production. If you have any particular requests regarding supported hardware, site features, etc., please let us know! We’re excited about the partnership we have developed with this manufacturer. The print quality, turnaround time, and service are outstanding. We’re expecting a very positive reception from everyone that has a chance to use one of these phone cases.

Cotton Bureau is known for one thing: incredibly soft and long-lasting t-shirts. Sure, if you look hard enough you can find other products on the site, like fancy pens, adult onesies, BBQ passports, silly socks — plus mugs, prints, stickers, magnets, and more. But all of those other products have something in common besides not being t-shirts: they require a significant upfront financial investment, which is kind of a bummer at best and, for many people, quite impossible.

From day one, the entire purpose of Cotton Bureau has been to help you make and sell things without needing to sweat the production details or park a dump truck of inventory in front of your house.

For t-shirts (and sweatshirts and tank tops and shirts for kids of all ages), you can submit a design today, have it live today, and then have it live every day after today as well without needing to worry about re-ordering stock or hitting a campaign minimum. Turns out that works really well for a lot of people, so… we’re going to do that, but for more stuff, starting with [redacted].

To get on the more stuff train and help us test this new and highly secret on demand [shhhh], just email us. We’re looking for a number of smart and talented people to lend a hand. Exact timeline for everything is tbd, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Not quite one month ago (June 12), we quietly celebrated a frankly astonishing nine years of Cotton Bureau. We’ve seen presidents come and go. We’ve worked from one office, then a new office, then from home, and now sometimes from home and sometimes from yet another office. We designed, developed, manufactured, sold, shipped, and, ultimately, shuttered Blank, our ill-starred bespoke t-shirt brand. We’ve had some big wins and some painful losses, but time marches on, and we’re still here, like the ship of Theseus, constantly changing, always staying the same.

Welcome to the Back Room.